Scripture Reading: Matt. 1:1, 23; 3:17; 17:5
Ⅰ
The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes the fact that Christ is the son of David—1:1; 9:27; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9:
A
Solomon, the son of David, is a type of Christ inheriting the kingdom (2 Sam. 7:12b, 13b; Jer. 23:5; Luke 1:32-33), having wisdom and speaking the word of wisdom (Matt. 12:42), and building the temple of God (2 Sam. 7:13a).
B
As the son of David, Christ, the King, brings us into the kingdom of the heavens; thus, the title son of David signifies the kingdom—Matt. 5:3.
C
Christ's being the son of David is also for us to participate in the divine authority—16:19; 18:17-18; 28:18-19.
D
The covenant that God made with David concerned the kingdom—2 Sam. 7:8-16:
１
Once God has a kingdom filled with His authority, then in His administration He can carry out whatever is on His heart to be the blessing promised to His chosen people.
２
Christ as the seed of David is the resurrected King as God's sure mercies for the dispensing of God Himself into all the believers of Christ so that they might share His kingship for God's administration—vv. 12-13; Acts 13:32-35; Isa. 55:3-4; Rom. 5:17; Rev. 20:4, 6.
Ⅱ
Isaac, the son of Abraham, is a type of Christ (Matt. 1:1) as the promised One who brought the blessing to all the nations (Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:16, 14), who was offered to God unto death and was resurrected (Gen. 22:1-12; Heb. 11:17, 19), and who will receive the bride (Gen. 24:67; John 3:29; Rev.19:7):
A
The covenant that God made with Abraham concerned God's coming to be the blessing to His chosen people—Gen. 22:17-18:
１
As a result of this covenant, the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit has become our blessing—Gal. 3:14.
２
Christ as the seed of Abraham became the life-giving Spirit to impart Himself into His believers for the blessing of all the nations of the earth—Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:16, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
B
We must receive Christ first as the son of David and then as the son of Abraham— Matt. 1:1:
１
In order to be the blessing to His chosen people, God needs a kingdom, a realm, filled with His authority—Col. 1:13.
２
To receive Christ as the son of David is to recognize His kingly status and to realize that we should be under His kingship and sovereignty.
３
By receiving Christ as our King and living under His ruling, we enjoy the processed Triune God as our blessing; the more we are under the Lord's ruling, the more we enjoy the Triune God as our blessing—Gal. 3:14.
Ⅲ
We may experience and enjoy Christ as Emmanuel—Matt. 1:23; Isa. 7:14:
A
In His humanity, Jesus, God incarnate, is Emmanuel, God with us; therefore, when we call on the Lord Jesus, we have the sense that God is with us—Rom. 10:12-13; Matt. 28:20.
B
Christ is the complete God becoming a perfect man; hence, He is both the complete God and the perfect man, possessing genuine divinity and real humanity—John 1:1, 14; Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 1 Tim. 2:5; 3:16.
C
As Emmanuel, God with us, the Lord Jesus has the capacity in His divinity and the capacity in His humanity to meet our need in every way—Phil. 4:19:
１
We need Him in His divine capacity so that we may be divine as He is, and we need Him in His human capacity so that we may be human as He is in the highest standard of morality—Matt. 5:48; Luke 6:35.
２
By Him, with Him, and in Him we can be a God-man, a divine man, as He is; He is divine becoming human so that we may be human becoming divine—John 1:12-14; Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4.
３
In this way He, as the all-inclusive One, meets our need adequately and sufficiently in the most superior way—Phil. 4:19.
D
The practical Emmanuel, the presence of the Triune God, is the Spirit of reality; He is with us all our days, in our spirit and in our gatherings—John 1:14; 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Matt. 28:20; 2 Tim. 4:22; Matt. 18:20.
Ⅳ
For our experience and enjoyment, Christ is also God the Father's beloved Son—Matt. 3:17; 17:5:
A
As the Father's beloved Son, Christ is the embodiment and expression of the Triune God—Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14; 14:9-10:
１
In His human living and in His work, Christ the Son did not express Himself but expressed the Father—3:34; 5:43; 7:16-17; 10:30; 12:47-50.
２
To have the Son is to have both the Father and the Spirit, for the Son is the embodiment and expression of the Triune God realized as the Spirit for our experience and enjoyment—14:9-10, 16-17.
B
As the Father's beloved Son, Christ is the embodiment and expression of God for us to participate in the fullness of the Godhead to become God's expression— 1:16; Eph. 3:19:
１
In the Son we participate in the fullness of the Godhead—John 1:16.
２
As we participate in the fullness of the Godhead, we become the fullness of the Triune God, which is the expression of the Triune God; we become the corporate fullness, the corporate expression, of the Triune God—Eph. 3:19.